Snack Cracker Spread

This is a GREAT snack food! Super simple, quick, and nutritious. As well as filling enough to get him through until dinner! It's great to give some extra grains and fruit into the diet.

Ingredients:

• Graham crackers or salt free saltine crackers
• Applesauce or any fruit puree
• Cinnamon
• Raisins
• Wheat Germ

Directions:

1. Mix cinnamon, wheat germ and raisins into the applesauce or fruit puree. Spread over the crackers. 
2. Other than crackers you could also use pita bread slices or plain rice cakes

Results:
 Kye loves these! I love them because they are so easy to prepare and he really enjoys them too. Of course he eats off all the toppings first then eats the cracker but that's fine! I wish there was a way to make it with vegetables as Kye will eat fruit all day long but I still feel like this is a healthy snack and better than a lot of the alternatives out there.

Frozen Ban-Ola

 This one looks very gross but it's a big hit for snack time! I got this recipe from Wholesome Toddler Foods and it is a great way to get your toddler to eat fruit, dairy, and some healthy grains!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium banana, peeled
• 1/2 cup crushed granola
• plain or vanilla yogurt (blueberry works well too)

Directions:

1. Dip banana in your choice of yogurt
2. Roll banana in crushed granola
3. Place in freezer bag and freeze. To thaw just put out for a couple of minutes until soft enough to cut.

I used blueberry yogurt and I did 1/3 of a banana as a serving as the bananas I bought were rather large. I think I made about 9 servings of it and freezed them. They thaw very quickly so it's a good quick snack food. The cold is great for a teething toddler as well! And it's a very easy finger food for him. He loves this snack but I only give it to him on days where he doesn't eat a lot of other dairy. He eats banana each morning and I don't like to overdue it on the banana or on the dairy as he's a milk lover!

Sweet Potato Fries

I got this recipe from Wholesome Toddler Food and use it all the time. I know it's probably a "no brainer" recipe to most people but I do best when given instructions so I thought I'd provide them in case someone out there is like me and needs a recipe to follow :)

1.  Preheat oven to 400
2. scrub sweet potatoes (they say 6 medium/large ones but I only use 1 or 2) clean and/or peel them if you don't think your child can handle the skins (Kye likes them so I leave them)
3. Cut into sizes that will suit your need or cut into strips that you can cut down later (I do the strips)
4. In a large bowl put 1/4 cup of olive oil and add cinnamon, ginger, brown sugar etc (I put both cinnamon and brown sugar)
5. Toss the cut up sweet potatoes into the bowl and stir so they are drenched in the olive oil mix.
6. Dump onto a baking sheet, drizzle remaining olive oil over potatoes on sheet 
7. Stir and swirl potatoes on baking sheet before placing in oven
8. bake 30-45 minutes or until tender (I do around 30)

The only thing I've changed about this is the whole bowl thing. Why mix it in a bowl then pour it on the baking sheet? I just do it all right on the baking sheet to save time and having the hassle of cleaning the bowl haha!

Kye adores sweet potatoes and often eats them baked from the microwave. I like to make the fries as a nice variety to the same old thing and he enjoys them too. I wouldn't say he likes them more or less than the baked version but Zach said he liked them in the fry version so I guess that's a plus in that direction!

Magic Breakfast

Growing up as a picky eater my mom found her own ways to sneak nutrition into my diet by making "Magic Malts." I'm still to this day not exactly sure what was in them but I know it included Minute Maid OJ, bananas, and green beans...but hey we drank 'em!

My version of a "Magic Malt" comes in the form of oatmeal. Kye started out eating cereal like most babies and he still eats oatmeal just about every morning. He loves it and it's good for him! I've started adding things to it to make it more nutritious (and delicious?!?) and it "sneaks" in two servings of green vegetable, 2 servings of grains, and 2 servings of fruit! Here's a picture of his typical breakfast:

Ready to hear what it includes?

• 1/4 cup Gerber oatmeal
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3-1/4 container of Gerber stage 2 green vegetable (either peas or green beans)
• small my size handful of frozen peas

I heat the first four ingredients in the microwave for 25 seconds then stir and add:

• 1/4-1/3 of a banana
• 1 prune
• pieces of either apple, peach, or pear

Sound good? Kye LOVES it!!!  I sometimes will add Cheerios to the mix too if it's too runny. And ANY fresh fruit will work if I don't have apples, peaches or pears! Got any ideas of other goodies to add???

Carrot and Spinach Brownies

This recipe comes from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and sneaks carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, peas and spinach into chocolate brownies!

Ingredients:

• nonstick cooking spray
• 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet choc chips)
• 1/2 cup carrot puree ("orange")
• 1/2 cup spinach puree ("green")
• 1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 3/4cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler or over a very low flame (I just microwaved it!)
3. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy (1-2 min)
4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35-40 minutes. Cool COMPLETELY in pan before cutting into bars. (to freeze I wrapped each bar in cling wrap then put in a freezer safe bag, to thaw I microwave for about 20 seconds)

Results:

• TIP: I read that it's very important not to eat any of them until they are completely cooled as you'll be able to taste the spinach!
• Toddler: Kye LOVES these! He liked them right away and I give him 1/2 a bar as a dessert. I love that it counts as a dessert but is much healthier than his typical dessert (which is a cracker). 
• Adult: Both Zach and I tried these. I thought they were a bit dry but I couldn't tell it was "healthy" at all. Zach said it tasted like a health food bar so while it wasn't gross it surely couldn't replace a regular brownie in his book!

Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins

This is a recipe that "sneaks in" either carrots and sweet potatoes or cauliflower and zucchini! From Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

Ingredients:

• nonstick cooking spray
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup natural-style peanut butter (I used Jif)
• 1/2 cup pureed carrot ("orange") or pureed cauliflower ("white")
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (I used 1 1/2 bananas to get 1/2 cup mashed)
• 1 large egg white
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (all I had was white)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin pan with nonstick spray.

2. Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, peanut butter, vegetable puree of your choice (I used cauliflower as Kye loves orange veges so I don't need to sneak those in!), banana, and egg in a large mixing bowl (a large wooden spoon is suggested)

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and combine with a whisk

4. Fold the dry mix into the wet mix and combine just until lumpy. Don't over mix as it's a muffin recipe and you want them lumpy.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup of brown sugar and stir once or twice (this put s a crust on top of the muffins)

5. Divide the batter between the muffins. Cook until lightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean (15-20 min)

6. Store at room temperature up to two days, freeze up to a month (to freeze I wrapped individually in cling wrap then put in a freezer bag, to thaw I heat in the microwave for 25 seconds)

Result:

• Toddler: At first he wouldn't try it. But that's typical for a toddler. So I smeared some peanut butter on the pieces and he went to town. He LOVES these now and I typically will give him 1/2 of one with lunch.
• Adult: Neither Zach or I like bananas and Zach said it smells very banana-ish. I didn't completely mash up all the bananas either so you can still see chunks of them so I haven't tried them. The next batch I plan on mashing up the bananas better and then I'll test one and see what I think, I doubt Zach will try it though as he really loathes bananas. This will probably be a Kye-only food!

Name Your Own Hotel Price

Zach and I recently used Priceline's Name Your Own Price program and I had to pass along the details! We LOVED our experience with it and got the opportunity to stay in a 3 star hotel room that was SO SO much nicer than the 2 star one we had originally booked for almost the same price! I wanted to use it one more time before blogging about it and Zach did it again recently so we know a little more about the program.

THE DEAL
You get to name your own price for a hotel and if they accept your bid then you get the hotel room for that price! We were able to stay at the Embassy Suites in Greenville, SC for $40 a night and when we got there the rooms were actually going for $219 a night!!!

HOW IT WORKS
Visit www.priceline.com, click on the "hotels" tab then the "name your own price" icon. You're able to enter in the city, dates, and number of rooms. The next screen then helps you narrow your location to a specific region and allows you to select the star level for your hotel.

After that info is entered then it comes the "trickier" part. You then enter in the price you are willing to pay for the star level you selected in the area you selected. My brother called me and had gotten the deal for the Embassy Suites so we just entered the same price he did ($40) and were lucky enough to get the same hotel!!! You can enter ANY price you want but if it's too low then the website will warn you that your most likely not going to get one for that price.

THE PROS
Um...it's pretty obvious that you get to get an AWESOME hotel for WAY cheaper than you'd normally be able to get it! When we booked the room in SC we actually had already checked all the hotel deal websites and booked the cheapest room we could find. It was a Knights Inn (reallly crappy) for $34 a night. We paid $6 more a night for a MUCH nicer room!!! Totally worth it :) On top of getting a great deal the whole experience gives you a rush. It's super exciting to enter a price and then be surprised at where you get to stay!!! And knowing that the hotel is guaranteed to be the star level you chose means you know you'll be somewhere nice.

THE CATCH
While it's super fun and a great deal there are downsides. Once you enter that price you're willing to pay then you are locked in at that hotel. IT selects the hotel FOR you (based on the location and star level) so you can't be very picky. For example we weren't able to find a room that allowed dogs. We just had to enter the price and hope for the best (it didn't allow dogs so we kenneled them instead). We were told, however, that ALL 3 star hotels have refrigerators and microwaves so we at least knew in advance that we'd be okay there!

It also is really only a great deal if you're traveling very soon from the time you book. The closer to the date of travel then the more likely the hotels are to be willing to give rooms for cheap since they know they probably won't get filled. I plan in advance so we won't get to use this deal very often (in this case it was a funeral situation so it was very last minute planning). It IS great though for Zach as he travels often for work and he can just book a hotel the day before he leaves!

When Zach went to use it recently for his business travel we did learn another downside. If you enter a price and no hotels will take it then you have to wait 24 hours before you can enter in another price for the same star level and location.

Also once it matches you with a room it calculates the taxes and fees. When we stayed in SC the $40 a night did NOT include the tax or fees which made the room actually cost more per night. We stayed 2 nights and got charged $16 for fees and taxes so that really made the room $48 a night. Still a GREAT deal and totally worth it but I wish they could tell you the fee amount up front so you'd be able to figure that in when you name your own price.

REVIEW
While there are downsides to using this program, we love it! Overall it IS cheaper than other sites around. Zach booked his hotel recently in the Atlanta area for $40 a night and all other hotel websites (including the regular Priceline site) had the same hotel (which was the CHEAPEST in the area) for $79 a night! I highly recommend using this program, especially if you're a last minute traveler!

Have you tried this out before? Any thoughts or things I didn't include???